Cruz: 'Not gonna insult' Trump after lawsuit threat

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Ted Cruz said he will not respond to Donald Trump’s latest threat to sue him for not being a natural-born citizen.

Trump accused Cruz on Friday of running a nasty campaign after the Texas senator unleashed brutal attacks on Trump’s record on abortion, gay marriage and Obamacare on the campaign trail here. Unless Cruz stops, Trump said, he has “standing to sue” Cruz over being born in Canada.

Trump then re-tweeted several attacks on whether Cruz is a natural born citizen. Cruz said at the South Carolina Faith and Family Presidential Forum that he’s “not gonna insult” the Manhattan mogul in return.

“There’s more than a little irony in Donald accusing anybody of being nasty given the amazing torrent of insults and obscenities that come out of his mouth on any given day,” Cruz told reporters. “Suddenly, every day he comes out with a new attack.”

While Cruz repeated attacks on Marco Rubio as a liberal traitor, he also explained that he had to pull an ad based on that premise because of an adult actress’ “colorful” history. After hitting Rubio, Trump then trained all his fire on Cruz, as he has done up and down the state this week. Cruz contends he is the only candidate that can beat Trump.

But even as he lit into Trump as liberal on social issues, Cruz declined to directly address the lawsuit threat.

“My approach consistently has been I’m not going to respond to him. So he can launch whatever insults he wants,” Cruz said. “There is a reason that Donald engages in attacks, because it's all a smokescreen for his record.”